Indigenous African female fund manager that aims to contribute to increased economic advancement, visible leadership and improvement in the lives of African Women through gender inclusive investments.
Afrishela: Afri – signifies Africa and Hela – means money in ‘Swahili’ depicting funding for African Women.
We are a fund designed by African women for African women depicted in our logo that symbolizes an endless loop of indigenous women holding hands.
Team
At Graca Machel Trust in her role as Investment Director, she is co-leading the development of a $30 million Pan African gender lens investment vehicle called ‘Afrishela’ to invest in ‘missing middle’ enterprises in East and Southern Africa.
She is skilled at business unit management, entrepreneur technical assistance support, investor relations, investment strategy and implementation, gender lens mainstreaming, strategic advisory, project design and implementation, research formulation and execution, fund and product development, fund management, network building and advocacy.
She is the current chair of the investment advisory council for Canada’s Equality Fund and an independent director of 2X Global. In Kenya she sits on the board of East African Educational Publishers and Sterling Investment Bank. She has over 16 years of senior leadership experience working comfortably across interdisciplinary and multi-cultural teams. She brings a combination of regional and international best practice to provide both financial and non-financial support to women in business.
She has an honours degree in Economics from York University Toronto, Canada and a Masters of Business Administration with merit from Bayes Business School ( formerly Cass ) in London, United Kingdom.
She has supported the execution of several capacity building programs targeted at women entrepreneurs. She is skilled in fund development, blended finance structuring, identifying gendered investment opportunities, financial modelling, financial planning, business valuation, project accounting, financial and investment analysis, project planning, implementation, management and reporting, as well as research.
Has a Bachelor of commerce degree from the University of Nairobi with professional qualification in accounting and investment analysis having successfully completed the certified public accountant (CPA) of Kenya and chartered financial analyst ( CFA) programs respectively.
As the Graça Machel Trust’s Women Economic and Social advancement Programme Manager for five years, she facilitated network building, supporting women’s coalitions in finance, agribusiness, and business federations to advance women-owned businesses and gender equality. She designed and successfully implemented the Trust’s flagship entrepreneurial leadership program, Women Creating Wealth (WCW), which now has 500 alumni entrepreneurs. These initiatives have helped to increase women’s awareness and confidence to lead in business; and recognition that they have the power to influence greater gender equality. She was also part of the design team for the Trust’s Women Advancing Africa Economic & Leadership Summit.
She now leads the expansion of the Trust’s $9 million entrepreneurship program, and its flagship initiative, Women Creating Wealth, is poised to reach and empower 5,000 entrepreneurs in the next three years across East, West and Southern Africa. Korkor is passionate about women’s entrepreneurship and leadership for their significance in empowering and transforming families and communities in Africa.
She has a BCom Honours from the University of Swaziland, a Master’s in Public Development from the University of Witwatersrand, and is a certified coach from the University of Cape Town.
Advisory Board Members
Theo is a board member of various national and international civil society organizations and grant making foundations including being the co-chair of Canada’s Equality Fund; a member of the UBS Optimus Foundation and a board member of the Graça Machel Trust.
As a member of the Foundation’s senior leadership team, she also helps to execute the Foundation’s strategy and goals and contributes to its thought leadership and external outreach. Kanini currently serves on the board of DRK grantees Kwangu Kwako and People’s Pension Trust and was previously MD for Toniic, the global action network for impact investors. Prior to this, Kanini was the Director for Investment at the USAID-funded East Africa Trade and Investment Hub, a $65M, 8 country initiative to attract investment and increase trade in the East Africa region. Kanini is a UK Chartered Accountant with a record of exceptional leadership gained in East Africa, Europe, and the United States. The fund focuses on investing a range of capital for innovations in emerging markets that impact those living on $5 a day and below with a focus on Food and Agriculture, Healthcare, clean energy, and Fintech.
She is a cofounder and the founding chair of the East Africa Venture Capital Association. Eline furthermore is an adviser to various impact funds in the field of agriculture, healthcare and media in both Europe and Africa (FAFIN, IDH Farmfit Fund, IFHA and Vereniging Veronica).
Having worked in more than 20+ markets across North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, Isaac is an expert on trade and investment in emerging markets and has an extensive and successful track record in new market entry, alternative finance models including Islamic finance, and operations management. Isaac is deeply passionate about taking the lead in transforming Africa’s political and economic landscape by finding creative and sustainable solutions to complex problems. He is also the founder of Amahoro Coalition – which is a structured convening of private sector players with the passion and wherewithal to champion refugee economic inclusion in Africa.
